Nuclear rupture
The Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd (AECL) is alarmed at what it believes is the possibility of the vital pressure Control room, tubes in Indian nuclear reactors, based on their Canadian Deuterium Uranium (CANDU) design: rupturing soon and releasing radioactive material.
A Canadian Television report quotes AECL spokes-person Jeff McPhary as saying that problems with pressure tubes, which convey fuel to a reactor's core, had figured prominently at the talks between Indian and Canadian engineers in Bombay in February this year. Following the meeting, AECL president Donald Lawson wrote to the Internation- al Atomic Energy Agency that "there is a real danger of a pressure tube rupture occurring at any time", because the reactors in India are old and their pressure tubes already brittle.
India opted for the CANDU design in 1963 when setting up its first research reactor at Tarapur, near Bombay. Besides, the AECL was invit Kota ed to set up India's first 2,200 MW commercial reactors at the Rajasthan Atomic Power Station (RAPS) in Kota between 1964 and 1966. The CANDU design was not tested conw mercially and India's choice was based on the pre sumption that CANDU's recurring fuel costs would be merely 25 per cent that of the Magnox design.
One unit of the RAPS was shut down on February 12 for repairs and maintenance, and another on August 1. They will be brought back into operation only after they meet all the safety stipulations of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board- Chairperson A Gopalakrishnan, however, says. "Pressure tube inspections have often been carried out and remedial action has been taken."